1. Field
This application relates to card and board games, specifically to the card and pegging game of cribbage.
2. Prior Art
Playing card games has been a part of human culture for centuries. As with culture games evolve over time. As players play games, they sometimes imagine means to improve a game and the enjoyment of the game. Cribbage evolved in this manner when Sir John Suckling adapted the game of Noddy into what we now know as cribbage back in the 17th century.
Anyone who has played cribbage for a period of time can learn the counting, pegging and card throwing strategy inside and out. That is why over the years players and inventors have tried to make the game more interesting. Innovators have tried to improve the game of cribbage, known and loved across the world, because people enjoy new game experiences. Most commonly inventors have altered the cribbage experience by creating new board shapes and designs.
In particular, people love new games for which they already have a basic understanding. People can quickly learn and potentially master a new method of playing a game while discovering new plays, strategies, points and play possibilities. With the numerous variations to cribbage boards, there have been surprisingly few attempts to improve the game of cribbage by altering or adding to the actual deck of playing cards, or both deck of playing cards and board structure and design in combination. Some players, however, have come up with ways to alter the card game portion. The most common method of altering cribbage card play has been playing cribbage with double denomination decks of cards.
Cribbage is played with 52 cards of four suits: hearts, clubs, diamond, and spades. The game is played with the cards A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, without jokers. Scoring is traditionally recorded on a board with four parallel lines of 30 holes each plus one or two finish holes. Two pegs are used to record the score for each player; the rear peg showing the previous tally, the front peg recording the current score. Players move their pegs up one side of the board and then back down the other. The aim of Cribbage is to be the first to move the pegs all the way up and down a split length board twice. On a continuous lane style board and simulated board, the players typically peg one length of the board. The winner, is the first to score 121 points.
To start a new game or series of games, players cut for the deal and lowest card wins. Players then take turns to deal. The dealer deals six cards each with two players. Both players discard two cards face down into what is called “the crib” hand, holding in their hand the remaining cards they feel will give them the most points. The crib, which is counted last, is an extra hand scored for the dealer. With three players the dealer gives each 5 cards, throws one for the crib and each player discards one to the crib. With four players individually or in teams of two, each player is dealt five cards and discards one to the crib.
Next the dealer asks the player to the right to cut the cards. That player lifts the deck and the dealer picks the top card of the remaining pile while the cutter sets the deck back down. The dealer then places the cut card atop the deck face up. If the cut card is a Jack, the dealer pegs two points. The Jack is the only card, when cut, that gives points to a player in standard cribbage.
The opponent or player to the left of the dealer begins the pegging play by laying one of his four cards in his hand face up and stating its numerical value. All face cards count ten, the ace counts one and other cards are worth their numerical or “pip” value. The dealer or person to the left of that player then lays a card separately stating the combined total of both cards. Play continues like this with each player alternately laying a card on the pile in front of him or her while verbally keeping tally of the current combined point total. However, the total must not go above 31 points.
When a player cannot play a card without putting the total above 31, that player says “go” and, if possible, the remaining player or players must continue to lay down cards until that player or players, too, cannot play without taking the total above 31. When no player can play any card without taking the total above 31, the player who laid the last card pegs 1 point. When a player takes the total to exactly 31, that player pegs 2 points. Then the player to the left of the one to lay the last card starts a new round of play starting from zero. When one or more player's cards are exhausted, the other player or players continue.
During the play, the following events are scored and the appropriate amounts are immediately recorded and pegged on the cribbage board.
Playing a card bringing the total to 15, 2 points are scored.
Playing a card matching the previous card scores 2 points for a pair.
Playing a third matching card scores 6 points, 2 for each pair.
Playing a fourth matching card scores 12 points, 2 for each pair.
Playing a card such that with the two preceding cards creates a consecutive run, 3 points are scored. The cards do not have to be of the same suit, nor played sequentially. When the next player lays a card extending the run to 4 cards that player scores 4 points, five card runs score 5 points and so on. For example, suppose cards with the following face value were laid in the following order: 8, 6, 4, 5, 7. The fourth card would score 3 points; the fifth card would score 5 points. Aces count low so Queen, King, Ace scores no run points in standard cribbage.
Each player then counts the score of the four cards in his hand plus the turned up card. The non-dealer or person who laid the first card during pegging with more than two players counts first followed by the player who laid next and so on with the dealer counting last.                Fifteen: each card combination that equals fifteen counts for 2 points.        A pair, three of a kind, and four of a kind: Count 2, 6 or 12 respectively at 2 points per pair.        A run: A point for each card in a run.        A flush: Four or five cards of the same suit. A point is scored for each card.        
A 4-point flush is counted when all four cards in the hand with matching suit denominations. The turned up card can be counted if it also matches all four cards in the hand giving it a total of 5 flush points. The crib must have all four cards in the hand and the cut card matching suits to collect 5 flush points. There is no 4-point crib flush and flushes do not count in the pegging portion of play.                One for nobs: Holding a jack of the same suit as the cut card gives one point.        The highest possible hand score in standard cribbage is 29 points; three fives and a Jack in the hand with the turned up cut card being another five of the same suit as the held Jack. It is impossible to score a 19-point hand in standard cribbage.        
U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,358 to Hancock (1979) discloses a deck of 52 playing cards where forty eight of the cards have split value, and the remaining four cards are one face value. Using this deck with standard cribbage counting rules makes it possible to have five of a kind in a hand. While using these cards however, it is impossible to have a four or five card flush while also holding five of a kind in the same hand. It further describes counting each of two split hands in one hand and adding the totals together for larger point totals. Thus it counts two full hand scores of five cards each, adds them together and calls it a major minor hand score. So with major minor play and two players, the dealer counts four five card hands and the opposing player counts two five card hands for their scores. Using standard cribbage counting rules of counting five cards per hand makes it impossible to score a 19-point hand using this deck. Other than counting and adding up split denominations the cards have no specific rules, characteristics or unique board for enhancing the play of cribbage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,916 to Gleason (1994), discloses a split face deck of 52 playing cards. One half of the card faces are a standard 52-card deck with four suits and the other half of the faces is another standard deck of 52 cards. This creates a single deck of cards that has two complete 52 standard playing card decks each on the faces of the cards. When used for cribbage the game allows for four or five of a kind but with no flush capability. While following standard cribbage counting rules using this deck of cards, it is also impossible to have a hand score totaling 19 points. This card deck adds no special plays, rules or characteristics or unique board to enhance standard cribbage rules and has no similarity to our invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,883 to Brewer (1997), discloses a specific cribbage game using a standard 52-card deck in conjunction with a separate deck of peg cards, together with a corresponding board. The cribbage card game is played with the standard deck using standard cribbage rules. The board has certain peg holes at intervals marked along the peg lanes such that the player who lands in a corresponding hole draws from the deck of peg cards. The pegging cards “disrupt the normal course of play when a player lands on predetermined pegging locations.” One pegging card makes players go backwards. With standard cribbage there is no rule or play causing a player go backwards. The peg cards also disrupt the flow of the game among other ways, by requiring players to switch cards with other players and change the player who collects the crib points. The standard deck used to play and count the hands has no special properties or rule modifications enhancing cribbage. Nor does the board accommodate different peg lane length games and different lengths of play. The game of cribbage naturally has slow and poor hands, where at times a player barely moves along the board. Additional factors to slow cribbage may not be as fun to some players, wherein our embodiments have several means to speed up and enhance the game of cribbage.
U.S. Pub No: US 2005/0093229 A1, discloses adding a series of cards with added jokers, blue colored card suits and null cards to a standard 52-card deck. This ensuing deck is singularly created to alter the play of many card games including hearts, canasta, sheep's head, rummy, spades, acey-duecy, black-jack, poker, draw poker, solitaire and lastly, cribbage. Using this deck according to its rules allows a possible hand of five fives of mixed suits with no flush possibilities. It is not possible to score a 19-point hand as described. As the modified deck relates to cribbage there are optional jokers. When added to the deck, jokers play as nulls. “Jokers have no point values, nor can they be used as any set or sequence. Jokers and nulls can be used defensively, during the play to stop straights, flushes, pairs and three or more of a kind sequences.” In this game, the added jokers have no special rules or characteristics for purpose of play except to block points, block pairs, block sequences, lower hand and crib hand point totals. Further, a deck of 84 cards at a minimum and up to more than 100 cards will be difficult to play, especially for anyone with dexterity issues. Further the deck created has no unique board to enhance the play of cribbage.